KGO Radio Guest Spot on the Synoptic Problem

You can listen to my guest spot on KGO Radio's God Talk with Brent Walters either via their archive, which has a streaming and an mp3 download function. My contribution starts about seven and a half minutes in and lasts off and on for the hour. The broad topic is the Synoptic Problem, though it ranges onto related topics too.

Guesting on KGO Radio, Sunday morning

I'll be guesting on God Talk with Brent Walters on KGO Radio, tomorrow morning. The topic will be the Synoptic Problem. God Talk is on from 6am to 9am PST, which is 9am to 12pm my time here on the east side of the USA. I'll be on during the last hour of the show, between 8am and 9am PST, between 11am and 12pm my time. You can listen along on the internet if you are not in the San Francisco area, at KGO Radio. It will be my second time on the show; I did slot on Paul last June.

NT Pod 23: What is the Synoptic Problem?

I have now reached the part of the New Testament Introduction class where we look at the Synoptic Problem, naturally one of the most enjoyable elements in any New Testament Introduction course. This term, I am following along my teaching with episodes of the NT Pod. The latest episode is NT Pod 23: What is the Synoptic Problem? I released it on Wednesday and it is the first of three back-to-back episodes on the Synoptic Problem. This one introduces the problem and surveys the data.

The next episode will deal with Marcan Priority and the one after that with the existence of Q. For those who are interested, I am also experimenting, for this topic, with extra, extended versions of the NT Pod which use the audio feed from my lectures on the topic. The first of these is already available, and I will cover it here in a separate post later. The second is ready and will go online this weekend, along with NT Pod 24.

If you'd like to subscribe to the NT Pod, it's available on Duke iTunes U or through your reader or at the NT Pod site.

Pericopes and periscopes

When I am reading manuscripts or editing or examining, one of my favourite typos is "periscopes" for "pericopes". The word pericope is a favourite among Biblical scholars, for a unit of text, a passage, especially in the Gospels, especially in contexts connected with form-criticism. Even as I type this entry, "pericopes" is getting underlined in red as a spelling error, while "periscopes" is not. Since the advent of spell-checkers over the last generation or so, I suspect that this typo has become much more common. The eye misses the extra "s" and it is not, of course, picked up by the spell-checker. The other day I glanced at my hand-out in class and saw the word "periscopes" there where it should have been pericopes, so I had fallen prey to the same error. Perhaps this is a reason to stick to the slightly affected plural "pericopae"?

Biblical Studies Bulletin latest

Grove have updated their website so that now all the Biblical Studies Bulletins for 2009 are online. The most recent one, for December 2009, includes reflections on the SBL Annual Meeting 2009, and reviews of books by Francis Watson and James D. G. Dunn. Thanks to Dr Richard Briggs for letting me know.

PhD position Qumran Institute, University of Groningen (NL)

The following is posted on behalf of Mladen Popovic.

--
PhD position The Jewish Revolt against Rome (0,9 fte) (210026) at the Qumran Institute of the University of Groningen, the Netherlands

The department of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Groningen is looking for a PhD candidate (0,9 fte) for the project 'The Jewish Revolt against Rome: Religious Groups and the Shaping of Identities in First-Century Judaea'.

This PhD position is financed by a grant of the SNS/Reaal Fund. It will run parallel to the interdisciplinary NWO VENI project The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Jewish War against Rome (66-70), which investigates the impact of Rome on the self-understanding of a Jewish group at Qumran prior to the revolt. PhD candidates are expected to carry out research within the historical and archaeological framework of first-century Judaea in relation to the impact of the Roman Empire on the region and the conflict of 66-70/73. Projects may investigate e.g. Flavius Josephus' position, specific tions, specific sites, regions or interregional connections from different perspectives and on the basis of different sources (literary, archaeological and/or numismatic). The final form of the PhD project will be determined in consultation with the PhD candidate.

We are looking for enthusiastic candidates with a Master's degree or equivalent, in a (sub)discipline in which the doctoral study will take place. Candidates with a degree in Hebrew Bible, Jewish Studies, Ancient History, Classics, or Archaeology are especially encouraged to apply.

The degree must have been obtained within a reasonable period of time and with results that justify the expectation that the student will be able to successfully complete the programme in four years.

This PhD position is available as of September 1st, 2010.

For additional information see:

http://www.rug.nl/ggw/vacatures/10PhDJRR
--

Donald Wiseman (1918-2010)

The death of the Old Testament scholar Donald Wiseman (1918-2010) has been mentioned in several of the blogs, including BiblicalStudies.org.uk and Zwinglius Redivivus, both of which carry material from Pete Williams, the warden of Tyndale House, and reflections from Alan Millard. Remarkably, the picture shows Wiseman standing next to Agatha Christie.

T. G. H. James obituary

Tomorrow's Times carries a delightful obituary of Egyptologist T. G. H. James, who died in December, aged 86. I particularly enjoyed the following note:

The highlight of the departmental Christmas party was the presentation of a cake, baked by James and iced with an ancient hieratic text, which had to be identified before the cake could be cut.

Mary Beard on Desert Island Discs

It's not that often that classicists or Biblical scholars are on Desert Island Discs, but it's little surprise that Mary Beard appeared on the programme last week. It's a very entertaining and quirky episode, as you might expect. She defends her notorious post-9/11 column, talks about her parents and her past and says that life as an academic is "bloody hard work" and yet the ideal job. Not sure Kirsty Young should have allowed her the Elgin marbles as her luxury item, though.

The nice thing about Desert Island Discs these days is that you can download it as a podcast too, with the tracks reduced to an even shorter length (10 seconds or so?!) than on the actual programme.

Also mentioned on Rogue Classicism.

Helen Bond on the Apocalyptic Jesus (and Doctor Who!)

Helen Bond's latest op-ed piece on Bible and Interpretation is an enjoyable piece on The Relevance of an Apocalyptic Jesus including this gem:

Against this background, a non-apocalyptic Jesus sounds oddly complacent, stuck in an 80s time warp, when the only thing to rail about was conspicuous consumption and social inequalities. Of course, these things are important, and I don’t doubt that Jesus had something to say on the matter, but in a modern context these reconstructions seem to lack an important dimension. There is no point in teaching others to fiddle a better tune if Rome is about to burn all around you.

It's naturally a pleasure to see that other NT colleagues enjoy Doctor Who, but Helen is clearly not a geek, as this comment shows:

Over Christmas and New Year, six-million people in Britain tuned in to the popular TV series Dr Who, in a lengthy two-part special called "The End of the World" (luckily David Tennant averted disaster).

The two-parter was actually called "The End of Time", though Helen is quite right that its apocalyptic scenario witnesses to some taste for such things among the British public, who gave the two parts unprecedented appreciation indexes of 87 and 89 respectively. Helen's viewing figures are grossly underestimated; the total viewing figures for each episode were in fact over twelve million (source: Blogtor Who). If I were being really geeky, perhaps I might add too that while David Tennant clearly "averted disaster" he did so at the expense of his own identity, and now we have Matt Smith to look forward to.

NT Pod 22: The Anonymity of the Gospels

I released the latest episode of the NT Pod at the weekend. The topic is The Anonymity of the Gospels.

This semester, I am teaching New Testament Introduction here at Duke and I am running the NT Pod alongside classes, providing episodes related to the topics that arise in class. This one came out of the lecture on the authorships and dates of the Gospels. It is a topic I have blogged on here before, and you can read some of my thoughts on it in a little more detail in The Dating Game VIII: John, Thomas and Authorial Self-Representation (cf. the disciples writing the Gospels), as well as in forthcoming publications, of course.

For the next couple of episodes of the NT Pod, I am planning to talk about the Synoptic Problem. Well, it had to happen sooner or later, didn't it?

Teaching the Bible e-pub latest

There is a new Teaching the Bible e-pub available at the SBL site, for February 2010. For those unfamiliar with this regular publication, it is "designed to support teachers of high school Bible electives" and "it features easy to read and reliable resources that you can use in your classroom". There is a special focus on Wisdom Literature in the latest edition.

Biblical Studies Carnival 50

Duane Smith has posted the latest Biblical Studies Carnival, number 50, over on Abnormal Interests. (At least I think it's supposed to be 50?). There is a lot of stuff there, nicely divided into two halves, the first of submissions from outsiders, the second of Duane's own selections.

Meanwhile, the Biblioblog top 50 continues over in Free Old Testament Audio Website Blog.

NT Pod 21: A Historical Approach to the New Testament

With another NT Pod on the horizon, I was reminded tonight that I had not mentioned the previous episode here on the NT Blog. So this corrects that lack. Let me add a few words about where we are with the NT Pod at the moment.

This semester, I am teaching Introduction to the New Testament at Duke and I have decided to use the NT Pod to supplement the classes, to add short pieces that relate to what we are covering in class. I like to begin with some reflections on what is involved in a historical approach to the New Testament, and this gave me the opportunity to add some reflections on the topic in the NT Pod. Since the beginning, the NT Pod has had the subtitle "A Historical Approach to the New Testament" and now, in episode 21, we finally have the chance to explore what an historical approach involves.

As usual, you can find the NT Pod at its own site, you can subscribe in your reader, or you can subscribe via Duke's iTunes U.

The Bible: A History First Reviews

I am delighted to see several positive reviews of The Bible: A History, the new seven part series on Channel 4 (UK), the first episode of which aired on Sunday (see my posts on The Bible: A History). The Independent writes:

The Weekend's Television: The Bible: A History, Sun, Channel 4
Reviewed by Tom Sutcliffe

. . . . The principal punchbag in this programme was Richard Dawkins, criticised by Jacobson for intemperately attacking certitude with a mirror-image certainty. I guess Dawkins's prose style riles Jacobson – its impatience and asperity with certain kinds of human folly. And one might point out (from a safe distance) that if you want to excoriate irascibility and fierceness of language, it might help to be a bit less tetchy and short fuse than Howard Jacobson. But then this was a writer's appreciation of the Creation story, from a man who understands that the Authorized Version reverberates through English prose and poetry, and isn't too worried that some people choose to take it literally . . .

There are similarly appreciative comments from Fraser Nelson in The Spectator, Atheism as Extremism, and Sholto Byrnes in The Staggers blog on the New Statesman, The Importance of Myth. There are briefer comments in The Times, but still fairly positive.

Doug Chaplin offers his thoughts on the first episode on Clayboy, Nutritious Religion? Creation and C4's Bible: a History and Matt Page has his thoughts on the first episode over on Bible Films Blog.

The Bible: A History begins on Channel 4 today

If you're in the UK, don't forget that The Bible: A History begins on Channel 4 tonight, at 7pm. It's a seven part series and each week a different figure tackles a topic from the Bible (All posts on this topic). In the first episode, Howard Jacobson tackles the creation stories. Since I worked on this as Series Consultant, I am of course prejudiced, but I think this first episode is superb, engaging and nicely paced.

Channel 4 have added an a new interview on their website:

interview with Howard Jacobson

And the Telegraph have a piece on the episode:

Richard Dawkins pushing a form of 'aggressive atheism', says presenter
Professor Richard Dawkins has been accused of “parading his own failure of imagination” by failing to consider the possible existence of God in an attack by the author Howard Jacobson.
By Urmee Khan

Update: Doug Chaplin offers his thoughts on the first episode on Clayboy, Nutritious Religion? Creation and C4's Bible: a History.

Update (Tuesday): Matt Page has his thoughts on the first episode over on Bible Films Blog.

Morna Hooker to give C. K. Barrett Lecture

Thanks to Anthony LeDonne for sending this one over:

--
Durham University
C.K. BARRETT LECTURE
(A public lecture open to the university community, the churches and the wider public)

PROFESSOR MORNA HOOKER
(University of Cambridge)

‘Scriptural Holiness: Paul’s Understanding of Sanctification’

Tuesday 16 February 2010
7.30pm

Kingsley Barrett Lecture Room, Calman Learning Centre,
Science Site (behind the Library)
Stockton Road, Durham
(For map, see http://www.dur.ac.uk/map/durham/)

Refreshments After the Lecture
Free Entry

Morna Hooker is Lady Margaret’s Professor Emerita in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Robinson College. She was the first woman to be elected President of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, an international society of New Testament scholars. In 2004 she was awarded the Burkitt Medal for Biblical Studies by the British Academy.
--

World of the Bible Survey

Several other bloggers have already mentioned this, but it's worth another plug. This survey is looking for your views on the forthcoming SBL World of the Bible project. It only takes five or ten minutes to fill in, and it will be good to get your voice heard on the direction of this project. It's of special interest to me as one of the advisors. The project has already impressed the National Endowment for the Humanities who are funding it in its initial stages.

World of the Bible Website Survey

The Bible: A History: air date

The date of the first episode of the Channel 4 series The Bible: A History has now been confirmed as Sunday 24 January at 7pm. Channel 4's website on the programme is here. All NT Blog posts on The Bible: A History here.

The Biblioblog Top 50 Archives comes back

Ask and you shall receive! After whinging about the way that people simply delete or hide massive blog archives, the archives of the Biblioblog Top 50 are back. It turns out that its authors were raptured. So those of us left behind now have the archives as well as Free Old Testament Audio's new version of the chart.